Yesterday saw a male ruffed grouse strutting across the gravel driveway, with his ruff puffed out. We've seen several grouse over the course of the winter. One morning three were standing up in the tree limbs outside of our bedroom window. Learned that ruffed grouse enjoy eating quaking aspen seeds, as well as birch seeds, and we have plenty of paper birch and quaking aspen.

In the afternoon, arriving home from work, I flushed a grouse--possibly the same one--from the woods in the backyard, and also noticed two hermit thrushes in the brush and bramble next to the driveway.